Spencer A. McWilliams

Foundations of Mindfulness and Contemplation: Traditional and Contemporary Perspectives

The growing use of mindfulness and contemplative methods in treating mental illness and addiction has elicited interest in their relationship to the comprehensive Buddhist theory and practices that underlie them. This article discusses traditional Buddhist meta-theoretical assumptions regarding ontology and epistemology, along with its perspectives on the self, human functioning, dissatisfaction and dysfunction, and the relationship to mindfulness human well-being. It then describes contemporary elaboration of the concepts of mindfulness and psychological well-being by Buddhist-oriented practitioners and provides examples of therapeutic methods that incorporate these views and techniques.

Utilization of a nonprofessional child-aide school mental health program☆

Abstract Fifty-five women were given focused, time-limited training for work as child-aides with ineffectively functioning primary grade school children. During the first three-month program period, aides saw 329 children, 9% of the primary grade enrollment of the participating schools, for more than 7,500 contacts. This paper considers differential patterns of program utilization and the overall potential of the helping model for bringing needed services to otherwise unreached, maladapting school children.

Community attitudes about mental health services

Community attitudes toward a new mental health center were surveyed by calling 110 randomly selected residences. Drugs and alcohol were seen as the communitys most pressing social problem. Respondents were favorable to mental health centers and public funding and had accurate information about many aspects of mental health problems, although misinformation about types of services, professional staffing, and length of treatment was present. The favorable community altitude is seen as providing a base for increased public education in areas of misinformation and more consultation and preventive programs in areas of community concern.

Mindfulness and Extending Constructivist Psychotherapy Integration

The growth of psychotherapies incorporating mindfulness techniques, inspired by Buddhist psychology, provides an opportunity for examining the relevance of mindfulness in furthering the progressive theoretical integration of constructivist psychotherapy, particularly as these approaches share similar metatheoretical assumptions. Psychotherapists have effectively cultivated clients’ awareness and acceptance of their immediate sensations, thoughts, and phenomenal experience with positive effects. This article explores mindfulness theory and psychotherapeutic application, and discusses how constructivist psychology and Buddhist psychology can effectively contribute to each others mutual elaboration and extension.

Cultivating Constructivism: Inspiring Intuition and Promoting Process and Pragmatism

Given the compelling strength of its theory, research, and practice, why does constructivism remain at the fringes of our field rather than comprising the mainstream? Constructivism assumes that humans create knowledge in ever-changing contexts, rather than the more common view that nature reveals to us its own innate, foundational “way that it is” that confers meaning to us. Acknowledging the human desire for certainty might inform our response to our critics. We might understand individuals’ choices between these two views as based on intuition, temperament, and core beliefs that determine whether one accepts dominant discourses or seeks alternatives. Advancing and fostering constructivism might benefit from appealing to the latter population. Two approaches might assist in that appeal. First, we might actively embrace a process view of ontology that comprehends phenomena in terms of interrelated, changing relationships rather than a container of fixed entities with innate permanent characteristics. Second, we might reaffirm the merits of American pragmatist philosophy, the foundation of constructivist psychology, demonstrating its current relevance by considering second- and third-generation contemporary pragmatists who emphasize the fundamentally human role in knowledge creation. Finally, I suggest that because the discipline of psychology studies how living organisms create knowledge, it could assume a greater role as the foundation of all disciplines.

Construct no idols

Abstract A constructivist perspective views knowledge as indeterminate. Human beliefs bear no necessary direct relationship to reality, yet we tend to objectify them and treat them as real. I liken this tendency to idolatry, the xwrship of a created image as though it were the ultimate. Idolatry occurs when we believe that we know a final truth. I consider some implications of this metaphor for constructivist thought, including the notion that hypotheses originally served only to account for observations, but with the success of modern science, people have come to treat them as though they represent truth. To transcend idolatry requires active recognition that humans invent constructs and that our understanding of reality requires awareness of the central role of human participation. We might facilitate this process by becoming more aware of the metaphorical use of language. I discuss a technique from semantics, which elaborates on Kellys suggestion that we view language as invitational, as a useful tool...

Mindfulness in an Authentic Transformative Everyday Zen

We may view the diversity of mindfulness methods, derived from Buddhism, as ranging along a continuum from those that assist people to reduce stress, address addictions and mental health issues, and increase a sense of well-being and effectiveness to those that attend to deeper concerns regarding the unsatisfactory nature of the human condition and seek significant transformation of a person’s experience of life. By identifying the common elements that appear in the original teachings of Buddhism and its various branches, we can recognize forms of mindfulness practice that focus on seeing through the illusion of a separate self, the Buddhist concept, the cause of human suffering. Hubert Benoit’s Zen writings and Charlotte Jōko Beck’s Ordinary Mind School of Zen applied these understandings and practices, which originally developed in monastic settings, in a manner that makes them relevant and accessible to the lives of ordinary people in the Western world. They emphasize the universality of illusory self-images and the value of developing mindful awareness of self-centered thoughts and the unpleasant bodily sensations that accompany threats to the self-image and how this practice may lead to an awakened, transformed experience of life as it emerges, moment by moment, without a separate self to defend.

Who Do You Think You Are? Evolving Ethical Meaning Making

People must develop ways to determine and manage acceptable and unacceptable behaviors within their communities, although not all communities create the same ethical systems. Understanding differences in ethical systems, including between constructivists and their critics, might benefit from considering constructive-developmental theory, which views ethics as related to evolving individual self-identities in a context of accompanying cultural evolution. By considering that peoples ethical frameworks evolve over the life span and that current society consists of people at various levels within that evolutionary process, we may arrive at a better understanding of ethical differences and include a wider range of perspectives in our discourse.

Issues in replicating the trauma--Stren conversion.

The Trauma--Stren (T-S) conversion procedure was examined at a large state university and the construct related to personality and cognitive process variables. Significantly more respondents reported T-S conversion than in the original studies. Conversion was not significantly correlated with personal variables. The presence of experiences in which an event was reported as simultaneously traumatic and strenful is reported, and the criteria for clearly identifying the conversion phenomenon are questioned.

Psychology, History of (Twentieth Century)

This article is a revision of the previous edition article by M.G. Ash, volume 18, pp. 12399–12405,